ABIGAIL JACOBSON
Asst. News Editor
After graduating with your degree, there’s always one question in mind: “Where do I go from here?”
The Career Development Office (CDO) can help with that.
They host a graduate school fair every fall semester.
The graduate school fair featured graduate schools around New York and some parts of Pennsylvania. Each graduate school comes in to offer their programs to students.
This annual event brings together over 60 institutions to offer students the chance to get a glimpse into what may become their future. These graduate schools include many different fields of study such as medicine, liberal arts, law and more.
The fair is open to undergraduate and graduate students at Fredonia.
The first graduate school fair Fredonia hosted was back in 2009 and ever since then, they’ve done one every year.
Since the graduate school fair only happens in the fall semester, the CDO hosts events focused on jobs and internships in the spring semester.
Chris LaGrow, the interim director at the CDO, hosted this gathering.
The main purpose of the job and internship gathering was to provide students with the opportunity to figure out if they wanted to go to graduate school.
“Some of them are looking for the answer to [the question]: ‘Should I go to grad school?,’” LaGrow said. “I’m hoping that this event will help them clarify whether they should or should not.”
The recent graduate school fair was hosted on Oct. 24 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Williams Center Multi-Purpose Room.
The schools that visited this graduate school fair ranged from Binghamton University, Buffalo State University and Niagara University, as well as different departments in Fredonia.
Duvi Sanchez, a Fredonia alum and assistant director of recruitment at the University of Buffalo’s Graduate School of Education was there and gave her input on the importance of these types of events.
“I hope students can begin to see possibilities for their future,” Sanchez said.
While at Fredonia, Sanchez was majoring in social science and did not know of all of the opportunities and things she could do with her major until she had already graduated.
“Events like this allow students to network and see careers or graduate school opportunities they may have not considered,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez believes attending these types of events early on in students’ undergraduate careers is important because it gets students thinking about what they want to do in the future.
The University of Buffalo’s Graduate School of Education has attended these types of events before, especially for Fredonia. She mentioned that her and her boss enjoy coming to these types of events, since both are Fredonia graduates.
“I really enjoyed meeting all the students that came up to my table and learning what they’re thinking of doing after they complete their studies at Fredonia,” Sanchez said.
LaGrow hopes Fredonia students take advantage of these types of events and think about their future.
“I would definitely recommend that anytime you have the opportunity to make a personal connection in person, to try and do it,” LaGrow said.
If you have any questions about graduate school, potential next steps after college or about the graduate school fair, feel free to reach out to the CDO.
Email: careers@fredonia.edu
Phone: (716) 673-3327
Website: https://www.fredonia.edu/student-life/career-development-office
Location: Career Development Office (CDO)
Gregory Hall, 2nd Floor
Abigail Jacobson, the writer of this article and the assistant news editor of The Leader, works for the CDO.